With the recent devastation in Japan, the following resources will keep you well informed and provide useful background information.
CURRENT UPDATES
Access World News contains current and archived articles on issues, events, people, government and more, with full-text access to 200+ Asian news sources. The interface allows you to limit by region, and the sources include eight English language newspapers from Japan.
Environment & Energy Publishing (E&E) offers comprehensive daily coverage of environmental and energy policy and markets. E&E contains daily online publications considered “must-reads” by people who track and influence energy, environmental and climate policy. Sources include: Environment & Energy Daily, Greenwire, E&E News PM, Climate Wire, Land Letter, and E&E TV.
BACKGROUND
Encyclopedia of Earth covers geology, geography, environmental science, and related disciplines as they affect the Earth. This continuously-updated encyclopedia is a great place to start if you are beginning with an unfamiliar topic.
GEOBASE provides a detailed search interface for locating scholarly information for human and physical geography, ecology, geology, oceanography, geomechanics and development studies. Sources include peer-reviewed journals, trade publications, book series and conference proceedings. GEOBASE has the most international coverage of any database in the field.
Academic Search Complete is a scholarly, full text database for 5,300 publications as well as images, for nearly every academic field of study.
For additional sources and information, please visit the libraries’ subject guide for Earth & Environmental Science, or contact your Research Services Librarian to discuss your specific research needs.
For personal accounts, a remarkable book, on the Kindle, but planned to be published in hardcover, titled 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake has been created using Social Media. The book shows the power of the written word as the various authors share their experiences and feelings during and after the triple disaster. All proceeds from sales go to the Japanese Red cross. The blog, which has excerpts, is here: http://www.quakebook.org/